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Signed and dated in the plate in the title margin below the image Rembrandt f. cum pryvl:1633.

An 18th century impression of Bartsch's fifth and final state, Usticke's fourth state of five, with the publisher's inscription burnished out of the title margin but printed prior to the course, late reworking of the entire plate, printed and issued by Pierre Françoise Basan Circa 1795-97.

With narrow margins outside the image all around, a few minor repairs at the sheet edges, otherwise in fine condition. Joseph of Arimathaea, who had received Pilate's permission to remove Christ's body from the cross for burial, stands in rich oriental dress as Mary Magdalene, St. John the Evangelist and The Virgin Mary prepare a cloth on the ground, observing the careful, tortuous lowering of the lifeless body (John 19:38-40). This etching is Rembrandt's second attempt at this subject, after a somewhat smaller plate of the same composition was ruined in the acid bath. Only a few impressions of the ruined plate are known. The source for this placing of the cross and the figure of the man leaning over the top of the cross is a woodcut by Albrecht Altdorfer. The position of Christ's body and several other details were borrowed from Vorsterman's print which seems to have been inspired by Rubens. Rembrandt's work of these years is marked by Baroque pathos and externalized emotion and grandeur. These qualities bring his work much closer to the tradition founded by Rubens, and remove it from the sphere of North Netherlandish art of the time. The form of the signature, 'Rembrandt f cum pryvl' was intended to protect Rembrandt against the copying and sale of his compositions by others. In the fourth state of the etching the name of the art dealer Hendrick Uylenburg also appears, who was a relative to Rembrandt's future wife Saskia.

Bartsch 81 II v/v; Hind 103; Biorklund-Barnard 33-C; Usticke 81 II iv/v

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